Giggling

OH MY!!! If baby giggles aren't contagious, I don't know what else is :)

My stepmom had Gabrielle full-out giggling this morning like I've never heard her do yet! She had this little stuffed kitty in her hand and was saying "meow" and then tapping it on Gabrielle's belly. Watch and see!!!!!

Hope you had a few giggles yourself just watching!!!!

OH and see who's sitting real close by just observing? the real kitty, Daisey, haha!!! She got close enough where Gabrielle yanked on some fur so now she sits 'armslength away'.

Congratulations Jenna & Kody!!!

Jenna and Kody were married on Saturday, 12/27. I was honored to attend the ceremony and part of the reception. Here is a link to the photographer's blog with some great photo's:

http://www.alisonconklin.com/blog.cfm?catID=2

Jenna you were a stunning bride (OF COURSE!)! Your wedding was lovely and I wish you both all the best!!

Getting to know you.... Jeremy Gardner!

I soooooooooo wanted to post this on December 26th, which is my brother Jeremy's birthday. BUT my stomach had other plans for me (ick) so I didn't get to do it.


Getting to know you, Uncle Jeremy :) And since he didn't send me any pictures, I get freedom to pick the ones I want to publish!!!



1. Full name: Jeremy Nobles Gardner

2. Occupation: Data Analyst

3. Your favorite childhood memory: Every year around Christmas…..sledding and hanging out with family. And here he is hanging out with Gabrielle back in Nov:


4. The best movie you've seen lately (or book you read): I’ve been somewhat disappointed with the movies I’ve seen lately. However, if Just Friends is on, I’ll most likely watch it….plus it’s a funny Xmas movie.

5. What you are most looking forward to next year: Having more time off in order to get to NY more often

6. If money were no object... you would .............take a world cruise for 1 year! Then, I’d buy the NY Mets and have awesome seats for every game!! Of course I’d donate a lot of money too; schools, hospitals, etc (ummmm and your sisters some really cool stuff, haha or else you'll remember military school *evil laugh*) Sorry it comes up every year, lol.

This is a picture from last year at Amy's wedding - Jeremy and Nicole :)
And my most FAVORITE jeremy picture of all!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I know he will be so mad at me for this.

*heeheeeeeheeeheee*

Hmmmm is it Christmas yet???

WOW! Did we ever have a rough Christmas this year!

Mike got an intestinal virus on (last) Monday; he was sick for a few days...Gabrielle and I ended up driving to get Kimberly a day later than planned (in an ice storm, UGH, thankfully it was OK and we just wanted her here with us!). Then on Christmas morning at 1am, I woke up with the virus and don't even remember Christmas or the day after - I was either in bed or the bathroom. Thank goodness we switched off to take care of the baby and she did not get sick. We didn't even open presents til the 26th late at night.

But we were supposed to host Christmas here at our house with my family - and I postponed until Sunday when Mike got sick -- we didn't want anyone to get it! Well my parents and sister/kids were fine with it but of course they ended up with no plans, no dinner, etc. because we were doing everything for Christmas. Then my sister's kids got sick on Saturday!!! So they couldn't even come down - my parents did come down Sunday and went home earlier today. What a first Christmas for Gabrielle, huh? I swear it's the most disastrious I can remember! HAHA!

Well it's funny tho, on the way to pick up Kimberly - I heard a sermon on the radio. The pastor said something that 'hit home' for me. part of his sermon was "Christmas is NOT about your circumstances, it's about your relationship with Christ." And it made me realize, that no matter the size of the disaster we still have each other. We have lots of blessings and lots of love, that is what is MOST important!!

Okay so I will post a few new things tonight too :)

Getting to know you.... Uncle Peter!

I'm featuring different people in our lives each week - so if you get an email from me, you better answer it, haha! :)


OK first is getting to know .... Uncle Peter. I've got some great pictures from his 60th birthday bash this past September.

1. Full name: Peter John Markovcy

2. Occupation: Techincal Service Rep for Tarkett

3. Your favorite childhood memory: Getting my first Roy Rogers holster and guns set (and they didn't have the orange plastic ends on them) looked real...at that time

4. Favorite memories with your kids: Taking them on my bicycle (rear kids seat) to feed the horses at Willow brook. Going to Eric's football & baseball games & his weight lifting competitions...and Jessicas Cheering competitions, and games she was invilved in cheering and her baseball games... and Zacks School Plays and singing award Banquet.

5. What you are most looking forward to next year: The start of my new married life with PJ

6. If money were no object... you would Get the 57 Chevy panel truck completely made over & have a Family Cruise as the next reunion...

THANK you Dona and Pat

At my baby shower, Dona and Pat gave us this baby einsteen jumper-oo. Dona works with some new mommies and they all highly recommended it. Well, now we do too - we LOVE it! I put it together a week or so ago and Gabrielle just loves going in there. It's fun to watch her grab things and try to figure out how they work - this little frog thing is her favorite!

She is concentrating so hard here :) She can move all those little things around, it's fun to just observe and watch her do things. She's growing by leaps and bounds!

Thank you Dona and Pat for an awesome gift! XOXOXO!

First solid food

We started on rice cereal this week - thought I'd share an 'after' shot, heehee! It's actually GROSS if you ask me but the look on her face is priceless. She doesn't really love it yet, just kind of puts up with eating a bit everyday. My baby is growing up!!!

Adopt a Marine project update~

I wanted to THANK all of you again for adopting the marines I posted about!! They are getting our packages now and are SO GRATEFUL ! These guys have been working around the clock and are missing home. The cards and packages mean so much to them - I really appreciate your response to this project.

If anyone else would like to mail them, just email me - it's never too late to give them our support. This unit will be there until next Spring!

We wish you a Merry Christmas!!!

In the hustle and bustle of the holidays, we wanted to take a few minutes to wish you all a wonderful, healthy and MERRY Christmas from our family to yours!!!! XOXOXOXO~

Dec 13th Happy Birthday Grandma!!!

Okay so I am LATE but we did call to wish Grandma a happy birthday!!! This week has completely gotten away from me - I've got both sewing machines 'smokin' working on Christmas gifts and last minute orders.


Sooooo GRANDMA, we wish you a happy birthday - here is Gabrielle in her cute lil puppy outfit from you :)



And she seems to love to show her belly - because mama likes to tickle it and make her giggle!

Happy Birthday Kimberly!!!!

A special message for our special teen in Virginia!!! I was singing Happy Birthday to you this morning and Gabrielle added her version of singing along - so here is a very special birthday wish from us.

Okay so I have to share some pictures, which I am sure Kimberly will not like very much. Heehee! I was digging around on our computer and found some going back to 1999. Here they are, all different years but a cute glimpse into Kimberly.

This one is from last November, when she helped me with my open house. I love this picture of Kimberly and Liz:

She turns 16 - yes SIXTEEN - today! I still remember the very first time I met her, she was just 8 years old, almost 9. Mike went to pick her up and I was a nervous wreck. What do I do when I am nervous? CLEAN. Yep I still do that. So she walked in the door and I had big ole rubber gloves on, I was scrubbing the floor. And she was so shy, hiding behind Mike's legs. I told her my rubber gloves were on just in case Mike farted, I needed to clean the floor. She started giggling :) I bet she won't remember that but I do!!!

I remember lots of Barbie playing, gosh - do you remember Kimberly when we spent HOURS setting up "Barbie land" downstairs? And then Blake and Maddie came over and took it apart in about 5 minutes??? I have lots and lots of fun memories with you over the years. I hope you know how much we love you and miss you!!!

Happy 16th Birthday, we can't wait to see you in a few weeks!

Thank you Aunt Kathy!!

Aunt Kathy gave Gabrielle these ADORABLE pajamas on Thanksgiving. I put her in them the other night, they say "I'm Santa's Best Gift" and they are long-john type of jammies. They are comfy and sooo cute on her!!
And check her out doing some tummy-time. She has started rolling from front to back and actually did back to front (by mistake once). Heehee! She's looking in a little toy mirror there, she loves to coo and talk to her toys too.

And yes, she SURE IS Santa's best gift ever! :)

THANK you

THANK you for contacting me about the marines - wow!!! We've had a great response - I have 6 names. If you want to just send a Christmas card, that would be SUPER! These guys aren't getting much mail, so a letter or a card would be super. Email me, there's still time - and because it gets sent thru an APO address, it costs the same as if you mailed a card within the U.S.

I know funds are tight for all of us this year, but we thank you for your wonderful and KIND generous hearts!!!!

Happy belated birthdays!!

This week has been so CRAZY! Okay but we missed Liz's birthday yesterday, 12/4 - HAPPY belated birthday Liz :) :) AND my good friend Lucy - you both share 12/4 as your birthdays. Lucy & I have been friends forever and a day and I love ya girl!!!

And Gabrielle turned 5 months old this week, wow - where is the time going?? This is a picture of her on Dec. 2nd, lol - I am sure I won't do this for a whole year. Well, maybe I am sure????

So we went to the PA Christmas show in Harrisburg on Weds. We met up with my good friends Ree and Teresa and then I got to meet Cheryl, Ree's friend. We had fun BUT I will tell you it was one of those 'murphy's law' days for me! It took 4 hours to get home because of that accident on route 78, it was CLOSED. Oh my word! Poor Gabrielle too - I had to haul her upfront to feed her (in her car seat); she then shrieked for about 20 minutes. Which is so unlike her, poor thing - I felt like shrieking too at that point!!! ACK! Well we did make it home safe and sound and I do hope the trucker invovled in the accident is OK.

Well I did get some 'before we left' pictures, she is so cute I can't help it!?!

We are busy little elves here, working on Christmas presents and getting things ready to mail. Lots of neat suprises this year, I'm so excited for Christmas - I can't wait to give some of these gifts.

Happy Birthday Faith!!

Today is Faith's 5th birthday! I remember when she was first born, just a little peanut!!!

And this year she started KINDERGARTEN! Where does the time go??

Well we all wish you a very happy Birthday! XOXOXO

HAPPY Thanksgiving Everyone!

From our family to each of you, we wish you a wonderful Thanksgiving!!!Heehee, isn't that a funny sight! And here's one more from Daisey too:
We are going over to Liz & Bob's today, I can't wait to see everyone! I hope you ALL have a wonderful and happy Thanksgiving. We are so thankful this year for so many things, our loving family, friends, and of course our new sweet little angel who has brought us so much joy and love. We love you all!!

Fun Tuesday with cousins!

On Tuesday, we had ALOT of fun with Gabrielle's cousins who came over to visit. Lauren got here early and wow, Gabrielle was so intrigued by her! I couldn't even get Gabrielle to look up for a picture, she couldn't take her eyes off of Lauren :) Here they are in her room:

Lauren got to pick out the outfit for Gabrielle to wear for the day - isn't she so cute?? Lauren did a great job, didn't she!
Lauren & I played some games together and then she helped me stuff some dolls.
Then Emily & Denise came over for lunch and to play a bit. Lauren and Emily had fun 'hunting' for Daisey - who ran straight for her little bed in my sewing room. They are soooo nice to Daisey, she just gets a little jumpy at first with kids sometimes. She was spying on them from her house as they were spying on her:

We ate pizza and grapes for lunch and the girls were so happy to see each other:

Then they wanted to watch a movie - Little Mermaid won out, so we went in to put it on for them and they were all cuddled up watching it in bed, how CUTE!

We really enjoyed the visit girls. And yes we will have Aunt Cindy's dolly making workshop REAL soon, I promise! And it was great to spend some time having adult conversation with Denise - love ya lots!!!

Anyone want to adopt a U.S. Marine?

One of my closest friends' husband is deployed to Iraq - his unit left in Sept. and they won't be home until April or May. She told me there are guys in his unit who don't get ANY mail during mail call! I can't even imagine that and with the holidays coming up, I thought I'd post here and ask if you would like to adopt one of those guys to send some mail to.

It can be as simple as sending a holiday card (with their personal name on it so they get 'called' out) or you can send a box of goodies - believe it or not, they mostly want comforts of home.... junk food, beef jerky, candy, sunflower seeds, peanuts, drink mixes, tums, etc.

Please do not feel obligated to send boxes...a letter, a postcard....just knowing that folks back home are thinking of them especially with the holidays coming up means alot.

To mail them something costs the same as it would within the U.S. since it goes to an FPO address. Boxes and mail are taking about 2-3 weeks to get to them so if you think you would like to do this, please email and let me know - I'll send you a name and address right away.

THANK you and I'll be posting more soon!

O Christmas Tree

I wanted to share this picture too - heehee, I got a 'skinny' tree to fit in our living room this year; we are having my family down and I wanted to save as much room as possible (our other tree is huge!). So I got it on my trip and pretty much put it together as I unpacked the car on monday! Here's Gabrielle's face; the first time the lights are turned on. Looks like she's saying HEY mommy, what IS THAT? heehee!

Back from our trip

We had a wonderful trip to NY to visit with family. It's been a very long week since I got home - lots of business deadlines (lots of new doll faces on my website too ;). Soooo my brother Jeremy used to live in Rochester, NY and had the NERVE to say he wanted snow on this visit (um yes since he is in SUNNY south Carolina now). Well on Monday morning, we had about 3 inches - and it came down so fast!!! We still left and the drive was fine after we got further south. And Uncle Jeremy got home safe N sound.


Here's my favorite picture of Uncle Jeremy with Gabrielle!


We got a few visits from Aunt Diana and the kids too :) My sister gave Gabrielle her Christmas present early and what a wonderful gift. This play gym is so much fun, Gabrielle LOVES it. She coos and talks to the little birdies and kicks so much in there. Here's Faith & Lucas cuddling up with her on the floor:
We celebrated Faith's birthday a little early since we were visiting so close to her birthday. Here she is blowing out candles on her ice cream cake!
Jeremy's dad, Rich came out for a visit... sorry Amy - I guess everyone did get to see Gabrielle so far :( I SO MISSED YOU THOUGH!!!!!!!!!

It was funny, the men all watched football on Sunday and when Grampa or Uncle Jeremy had Gabrielle, she watched too - HAHA! Her first football game! She is really watching too!

Oh and we gave her another bath in the 'bowl' - hahahaha! She hung on to the sides, it was so stinkin cute. She couldn't get her little legs kicking/splashing like she does at home in her tub.

So anyway that was our trip in a nutshell! I am still looking through pictures and can't believe it's Thursday already. I've got alot of updates to do here, I'll get to them SOON!

Going to visit Gramma & Grampa

Gabrielle & I are getting ready to visit Gramma and Grampa again in NY. We are leaving today and won't be home til Monday. I'm so excited, my brother Jeremy is going to come up from Charleston, I haven't seen him since Amy & Trent's wedding last year. AND of course, we will get some visits from my sister and the kids, it's going to be a really fun week!!


When I get back, I'll update the blog with more birthdays & events that you sent me. I have some pictures to add too :) In the meantime, here is one from last weekend with a cute onesie from Gabrielle's Uncle Peter:

Happy Anniversary Amy & Trent!

HAPPY one year Anniversary, Amy & Trent!!! We wish you many many more years of happiness and love! XOXOXO!

Family blog

There's been LOTS of questions out there - can we use this blog to add more info on other family members? List upcoming events? Use it to keep in touch with each other? Share pictures and news? OF COURSE we can :) Anytime you want to add something, just email me and I will add it! I am just learning to use all the fun features offered with blogger - I'll play and see if we can do a calendar or some other neat stuff. But *please* do share family events and news with us, I'm so happy to include everyone!!!!


And in the spirit of having a little fun with this blog, lets play a game of Guess who?? We have been scanning some older family photo's and I will post them here to see if anyone can guess who they are.



Heehee, that 2nd photo is one of my favorites ;)

Happy 4 months old Gabrielle!

Gabrielle turned 4 months old on Sunday - her bib was a gift from Aunt Kathy and reads "I was worth the wait". YES you were baby girl, we love you lots and lots and lots!!!!

Where'd the week go?

I had great plans to post all kinds of pictures and the week kind of got away from me :) We had a great time at the party on Saturday. I have a couple pictures to share now and am waiting to see if we get some more from anyone out there!

First, our costume contest winners. YES we make you dress up when you come to our party! If you don't you get a diaper. Or a quick peek in the costume bin and funny hat, right Heather? ;)


Okay from left to right, Ilona, whoo hoo my birthday pal, she won the scariest costume - she was in a black cape (that covered her head too); she said I seem to have lost my head and now I found it - that was the talking head in the glass bowl, haha!

Then in the middle is Kathy who dressed as a clown with a rubber chicken she kept wacking people with - she won the funniest. That wig was a HOOT!

Then comes Eric who won most original costume - he was dressed as Hulk Hogan and yes ladies that is his REAL body. He is a workout fiend and weightlifting champion, I'll post more on him later. Lookin good tho ;)

We tried to get a picture of Gabrielle and I - but she really wasn't too thrilled. Lots of people and not a good nap for the day; then I put her in this weird costume. haha! We went as Little Miss Muffet and her spider. Thank you Bethany for the great idea!!! It was fun for her first Halloween party, next year will be even more fun for her.

We're thinking about having a costume contest for the kids next year - we had quite a few and they were having a great time. Something to think about for next year.

Here's a few more shots of some family all dressed up:

If anyone wants to share more pictures, send them my way!